Harvard University Professor Convicted of Making False Statements, Tax Offenses

The Department of Justice (DOJ) announced a federal jury has convicted former Harvard professor Dr. Charles Lieber in connection with his participation in China's Thousand Talents Program and failure to report income from the Wuhan University of Technology (WUT) in Wuhan, China.

After a six-day jury trial, the federal jury convicted 62-year-old Charles Lieber of omitting to file a foreign bank and financial account report (FBAR) with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), making false statements to federal authorities, making, and subscribing a false income tax return, and failing to file the reports.

From 2008 through 2019, Lieber served as Principal Investigator of Harvard's Lieber Research Group, which received more than $15 million in federal research grants. While at Harvard University, Lieber served as the Chemistry and Chemical Biology Department Chair while simultaneously acting as a "Strategic Scientist" at WUT. Later, Lieber functioned as a contractual participant in China's Thousand Talents Plan from at least 2012 to 2015.

The Chinese government awarded Lieber more than $1.5 million to establish a research lab at WUT as part of his three-year contract with Thousand Talents, in addition to a six-figure salary and living expenses. According to federal authorities, Lieber lied about his involvement in the program and his WUT affiliation in 2018 and 2019. Further, Lieber earned income during the tax years 2013 and 2014 in the form of salary and other payments made to him pursuant to his contracts. Participating in Chinese recruitment programs is not illegal; however, he did not report his earnings to the IRS.

Justice Department officials report that China's Thousand Talents Plan is one of the most prominent talent recruitment programs aimed at attracting, recruiting, and cultivating highly specialized scientists for China's scientific development, economic prosperity, and national security.

Andrew E. Lelling, the former U.S. Attorney for the District of Massachusetts, referred to the Thousand Talents Program as “a very carefully designed effort by the Chinese government to fill what it views as its own strategic gaps.” Lelling alleges that, when Lieber discussed his work with his Chinese colleagues at WUT, he was conveying sensitive information to them "by definition" because the Chinese government could then access Lieber's research and expertise.

Since 2019, federal law enforcement efforts shifted attention to Thousand Talents grantees as part of its quest to find scientists who are stealing research from American laboratories. In the same year, the Department of Energy (DOE) barred personnel from participating in recruitment programs from China, among other countries, and the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs (HSGAC) Subcommittee on Investigations stated China's recruitment practices posed a threat to American interests.

In December 2021, the Biden administration announced that it was imposing trade restrictions on dozens of Chinese research institutes and private firms that were involved with human rights violations and alleged weaponization of technologies that undermined U.S. national security.

Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo accused the blacklisted entities of supporting a broader Chinese government campaign to develop and deploy biotechnology and nanotechnology for use in brain-control weapons.

"China is choosing to use these technologies to pursue control over its people and its repression of members of ethnic and religious minority groups," stated Raimondo, “We cannot allow U.S. commodities, technologies, and software that support medical science and biotechnical innovation to be diverted toward uses contrary to U.S. national security.”

For his work in this field, many viewed Lieber as a potential Nobel Prize winner. The science of nanotechnology, which manipulates materials at atomic scales, is finding increasing application in areas such as medicine, green energy, computing, and military applications. 

Lieber will be sentenced at a later date, which has not yet been scheduled. He faces up to 13 years in prison, seven years of supervised release, and fines of $600,000.